The president of Keystone Agricultural Producers says he’s disappointed the federal government isn’t going to bail out flooded Manitoba farmers.
Doug Chorney said comments from agriculture minister Gerry Ritz at the close of a meeting with his provincial counterparts in Winnipeg last week left him with little hope that money is coming through AgriRecovery or other programs.
Ritz told reporters July 18 that farmers are well served by existing programs. He said changes made since the 2011 flood have improved crop insurance coverage.
“So it’s much more bankable and predictable and stable than waiting for an ad hoc payment under something like AgriRecovery,” he said.
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Chorney said that wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He has estimated farmers in his province will lose $1 billion because of the flood, and he noted the situation for some Sask-atchewan farmers is also dire.
He said multiple years of flooding have made existing programs less effective.
“If the insurance program starts to break down because of all the years of difficulty, those programs aren’t working, and I’m hearing that loud and clear,” he said.
AgriRecovery is intended to pay for extraordinary costs that producers face because of a natural disaster. However, it is considered a framework rather than a core business risk management program and requires a province to ask for an assessment.
A joint assessment with the federal government would then take place, followed by a decision on whether to proceed with an AgriRecovery program.
Flooding in 2011 did result in a $448 million AgriRecovery program for Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Mike Lesiuk, Manitoba’s acting assistant deputy minister of agriculture policy, said the province is assessing how the existing programs are meeting immediate needs this time around.
“There were enhancements made to AgriInsurance to address impacts to unseeded land and forages since the 2011 flood,” he said in an email.
“We will continue to work with industry to assess the conditions and monitor progress on crop and livestock feed needs to determine the appropriate response for recovery. At this time there is no AgriRecovery program.”
Saskatchewan does not intend to trigger an assessment of its flooded acres.
“There will be costs that won’t be covered from some of the worst affected,” said Saskatchewan agriculture minister Lyle Stewart. “But I think the worst of the shock will be taken up by existing programs.”
He said farmers make a “business choice” when they don’t participate in crop insurance and other risk management programs.
Stewart estimated two to three million acres were affected in Saskatchewan.
In Manitoba, 950,000 acres were unseeded and another 2.5 million acres were flooded.
Chorney said it shouldn’t take long to assess the situation.
“There’s people talking about dissolving their farm corporations and telling their families that the farm will not be able to sustain the next generation and they should start seeking employment elsewhere because there’s not going to be anything left for them,” he said.
“We’re way past the point of deciding if there’s a problem. I’m concerned that governments don’t appreciate that.”
He said the criteria for triggering AgriRecovery has changed since 2011, and it’s not supposed to cover recurring events or insurable losses.
“It’s no accident they made these changes so they can avoid ad hoc programming, but it does also say in the rules that any extraordinary event that has a big regional impact,” he said.
“We are meeting those tests.”
Chorney said he hopes Ritz will change his mind when Manitoba officials gather all the information and present it to him.
Ritz did say the federal government is prepared to work on flood mitigation measures.
Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has said flood costs, not including payments to farmers, will top the $360 million spent in 2011. Manitoba premier Greg Selinger pegged his province’s costs at more than $200 million and still rising.
Meanwhile, agriculture ministers also discussed the grain transportation backlog and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) during their meeting in Winnipeg.
Stewart said the railways appear to be meeting the 11,000 cars per week goal, but even so there will be a carryover at harvest of 20 to 22 million tonnes.
“With a normal or slightly bigger than normal crop, we’re kind of back where we were last fall, except that we should have the legislation in place,” he said.
His counterparts supported the efforts being taken to move grain, he added.
The ministers agreed that proposed changes to the TFWP would hinder the food processing sector’s ability to find enough employees. They agreed to monitor the impact of changes and make sure the sector’s needs are met.
“I think it’s good ammunition for minister Ritz for the cabinet table and the caucus table in Ottawa to have the endorsement of every single agriculture minister in the country to continue with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program as it exists,” Stewart said.
